Austen’s six novels were published between 1811 and 1817, and the two shortest, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, appeared together after her death.
Most readers meet her through Pride and Prejudice, and that is still the right door: it is the funniest of the six and the one where the narration is most openly on the reader’s side.
Austen’s six novels were published between 1811 and 1817, all of them without her name on the title page: Sense and Sensibility says only ‘By a Lady’, and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appeared together after her death. The range is narrow, 80,264 to 163,000 words, so the choice between them is about tone rather than length.
The shelf comes to roughly 730,000 words, about forty hours. Pride and Prejudice runs about seven hours and Persuasion about five, so a fortnight of evenings covers all six once. Read in publication order you watch her get cooler and funnier at the same time: the first two are bright, Emma is the most controlled, and Persuasion is the only one written by a woman who knew what losing a person is.
Start here: Pride and Prejudice. At 122,000 words it runs about seven hours, and the first hundred pages do what the later novels assume you already trust her to do.
Jane Austen: which book first
Every Jane Austen title on editions.ink, with the reading time for each. The first row is the one to start with.
| Book | Year | Words | Read time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pride and Prejudice — start here | 1813 | 122,000 | 7 h |
| Northanger Abbey | 1817 | 80,264 | 4 h |
| Persuasion | 1817 | 84,000 | 5 h |
| Sense and Sensibility | 1811 | 119,000 | 7 h |
| Emma | 1815 | 161,000 | 9 h |
| Mansfield Park | 1814 | 163,000 | 9 h |
| All six | 729,264 | 41 h |
What to read after the first one
- Persuasion — the shortest and quietest, written last, and the best test of whether you like her at all
- Emma — the one that plays the longest game with the reader’s judgement
If you would rather see the whole shelf in chronological order first, the Jane Austen books in order page lists every title by publication year with the same word counts. The Jane Austen author page collects all the editions in one place,, and the author index has the other writers on the site. If you want a follow-up by a different author, the read next guide pairs ten classics with what to read after them.
Questions readers ask
Which Jane Austen book should I read first?
Pride and Prejudice, at 122,000 words. Persuasion is the shorter alternative at 84,000 if you want the quieter book first.
In what order were the novels published?
Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), then Northanger Abbey and Persuasion together after her death.
Are these Austen editions free?
Yes, all six are complete DRM-free EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB files with no sign-up.